Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 20, Number 54, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 March 1899 — To Stop A Great Abuse. [ARTICLE]

To Stop A Great Abuse.

The Supreme Court has lately decided, very plainly and specifically, that people who ride on brick, stone, board or gravel sidewalks on bicycles, can be fined under the state law. In the same decision it was also plainly held that city councils could make ordinances regulating or prohibiting bicycle riding on walks composed of material other than those above mentioned. Acting on this suggestion an ordinance is being prepared and will be presented to our city council, which will prohibit bicycling on cement walks within the city limits. The ordinance ought to be passed at once, and then that and the state law above referred to be rigidly and impartially enforced. There are many persons who, if permitted to ride on sidewalks, will proceed in such a slow, careful and considerate manner as neither to endanger nor inconvenience foot passengers, but as soon as careful people are permitted to ride on side-walks, two or three limes their number of reckless ones will claim the same privelege. Let anyone recall the several accidents that occurred here last year from side-walk bicycling, and the scores of hairbreadth escapes from other accidents, not to speak of the constant inconvenience pedestrians were put to in dodging them, and the conclusion must be that the same state of of affairs should not be permitted another year.